Problems installing NEC 2500 DVD writer

[rendertrap]

I just got a NEC dvdwriter and removed my old cd writer which is totally knackered....

I removed it last night, and replaced the cable connections with was was connected to the old cd writer... I also have a cdrom drive connected also which is what I think the primary ide connection and the dvd writer the secondary connection...

After booting up my machine I received a message on startup that the SMART devise with lots of letter and numbers was capable but disabled...

So thinking of this I went into the BIOS and made this enabled....

It then asks me to press F1 to continue....

But.... once I've done this it comes up at startup a message saying ide primary & secondary are incompatible..???

Then when loading win XP explorer cannot find them?

I've also tried to add new hardware but it can't see it??

The cd rom drive worked b4, so i ain't sure what I've done..

Can anyone help as I would like to get my dvd writer up and running...

cheers

email me or leave on thread..

rendertrap@tesco.net

[PhilEnfield]

First off .... check your jumper setting on the 2500

[leadan]

As PhilEnfield said check the jumper on the back of the NEC2500 because they're usually shipped out already set as master and you've installed it as slave.
Although i would swap the ide cable around and have the writer as master.

[Jesterrace]

Yup, that will do it. You ALWAYS need to check the jumper settings on your drives before installing them. Also as mentioned above, for best results set the writer to master.

[MadMatt]

Another thing to check is to go in to the bios and,go in to auto detect hard disks(or wotever its called in your manafactuers bios) and let it search for each of your drives so that the new drive is picked up in the bios.

HTH
Matt

[rendertrap]

I've got it working.. by xp says its not installed properly and i didn't get any drivers with it...

Could you tell me where to get that from and also best fireware to install as would like to start burning asap...

however just tried to copy cd and it worked... so the audio bit works with out a driver....

[PhilEnfield]

What message is XP giving you ?

There are no specific drivers required in XP ... the Generic drivers will work fine.

[rendertrap]

aha... i get the new hardware detected and then it goes on to search for drivers... but comes back with a message saying unable to find driver after connecting to the internet.. but when looking at the drive in system in control panel its okay.. and just copied my first dvdr and works fine in my standalone player....


What exactly is the firmware for then? Can I get away with not needed to have it?

[PhilEnfield]

Not sure why it is detecting New Hardware, if the drive is working ? .... are you sure it's not detecting & searching for something else ? ... try having a look in Device Manager to see if there is anything listed with a yellow exclamation mark against it.

The 2500 is shipped with Firmware already installed, but I believe there is a newer Firmware version available for download. I haven't got a 2500 myself, but someone here will no doubt post below the details. In the meantime have a little play with it and see how things go. There is a risk involved, when flashing the firmware, so if things work ok for you with the existing version, there's an old saying that goes ..."if it aint broke - dont fix it" ;)

[Neo]

Optical Drives do not use drivers, well they do but Almost every OS in the world has bundled it already. If you can burn audio then you will most likely be able to burn Data too.

[rendertrap]

Yep been able to burn dvds, & checked in devise manager and its not coming up with yellow exclamation mark like b4.. but still when booting up machine it tells me new hardware is detected and says nec 2500 blah blah blah.... & its a pain in the arse as you cancel and it then comes up with migth not work properly.... how can I get rid of this bloody thing......

[PhilEnfield]

Sounds like something's become corrupted .... maybe some remnants of your old setup.

Try going to Device Mangler/IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers and removing the IDE Channel (right click & uninstal).

Then reboot and XP will reinstall it automatically and detect/install any drive(s) on that channel.
This may flush the problem out.

[rendertrap]

if I do this will it cause any problems, like stop the dvd writer from recorded or anything as I don't really want to mess it up as I hate it when it goes wrong.. I get too stressed....